Tag Archives: Sugar-Sweetened Beverages

Thursday, April 25, 2013

FoodFacts.com listens to a lot of consumers say things like “I don’t drink that much soda, maybe I have one every day.” There’s been a lot of debate recently surrounding the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. The attempt by the New York City mayor to ban the sale of large-sized sugar-sweetened beverages in an effort to curb the obesity crisis raised all sorts of arguments both for and against his proposition. Some of the recent research into the effects of those beverages may lead some to believe that he really had a point.

Today we found just that sort of research and wanted to share it with you. A new study out of the Imperial Collage in London, England has shown that for every 12 oz. serving of a sugar-sweetened soft drink each day, the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes increases by about 22%. So if you have one sugar-sweetened soda at lunch, your risk increases by 22% and then if you have another one later at dinner that same day, your risk increases by another 22%. That’s quite substantial.

Most of the research that has been conducted on the effects of sugar-sweetened beverages comes from populations in North America. The study sought to establish whether there is a link between sugary-beverage consumption and Type 2 Diabetes in Europe. They used data on consumption of juices, nectars, sugar-sweetened soft drinks and artificially sweetened soft drinks that had been collected from eight European countries participating in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. This included about 350,000 participants.

The researchers study included 12,403 type 2 diabetes cases and a random sub-cohort of 16,154 identified within the larger European study. They found that, after adjusting for confounding factors, consumption of one 12oz serving size of sugar-sweetened soft drink per day increased the risk of type 2 diabetes by 22%.

The authors also discovered a significant increase in Type 2 Diabetes as it relates to the consumption of artificially sweetened soft drinks. When the BMI of the participants was taken into account, however, this association disappeared, indicating that the participants weight was driving the increase. The consumption of fruit juices and nectars was not linked to an increase for Type 2 Diabetes. The researchers noted that their findings are similar to the results of studies conducted in North America.

Knowing that this research confirms the results of many studies conducted across North America does motivate us here at FoodFacts.com to get behind efforts to curb the consumption of sugary-beverages. We understand that there are many different ways to accomplish this large undertaking. Our belief, as always, is that education is the first, best step to incite change. We do that every day with our website and hope to see more efforts to educate consumers on the importance of eliminating sugar-sweetened soft drinks from their diets.